Erik Lindgren Sells Out

AllMusic Review
by Richie Unterberger

Lindgren's more pop-minded recordings are basically commercial pop with tinges of eclectic idiosyncratic auteurism. The term "commercial" is not just an adjective; he's made part of his living by composing and recording commercial jingles. A few of them are even on this retrospective of sorts of his most vintage accessible work, recorded between 1979 and 1985 with various aggregations of musicians and culled from a wealth of obscure indie singles, LPs, and -- of course -- jingles. It's an unavoidably erratic, sporadically amusing disc that, like a fly trapped in the house, never really finds a comfortable home. It's obvious that he loves the Beach Boys and power pop, often sounding like Beach Boys, Left Banke, or Raspberries songs in need of a better vocalist (Lindgren himself occasionally taking the vocal chores). The commercials sound like, well, commercials, perhaps a little more imaginative and power pop-indebted than the ones you hear on your average talk radio station, but still not things you feel like hearing over and over again (though, ironically, they were expressly designed as something that would have to be played over and over again). The production is again a little eccentric but rather mainstream, and too slick in that early-'80s booming drums-and-synth manner, when your standard rock setup would have served these pop/rock tunes better.